Wow, Yam seems like a fairly stiff cliff for learning trad. I've only lead 1 route there: Forbidden Corner 5.8 ,but found it very serious for the grade! Long runouts, difficult protection, and questionable rock. Even though I'd climbed trad for years at 5.10 grades. An impressive cliff, but serious.

Thin cracks seemed to be most common, often protected with fixed knifeblades. But I'd definitely take small stoppers and Lowe Balls (not to mention the other balls required).

It depends on the route really. Easy street for example, almost entirely bolted belays and often short pitches, i would go with Camalot C3 red and yellow and C4 .4-3, set of nuts (or a half set) (and a pink and red tricam if you wanted to supplement). Generally speaking I find myself reaching for the .5 and .75 the most often however that is pretty route dependent. Long slings are good on most routes.

Anywhere that bolted belays do not exist I find myself hauling more gear up especially in the middle sizes. Happiness is a solid belay.

The Yam guidebook has a good discussion of gear for the cliff. That said, (and I may be repeating the guidebook here) but: a set of nuts (DMM/WC are nice), C3s from green or purple to yellow and .4-3 C4s, and maybe the largest WC hex would be a good rack. That said, gear is highly dependent on the route and you might need anything from tiny gear to #6s. Still a set of singles would be fine for the west end. I would recommend Grey Goose as a fun route if you have some mileage - but watch the second pitch.

Not to repeat what has been said befor but it is very route dependent and if your first learning thats great and Yam is a great crag but to keep in mind that you will not find sport grades there as well as the last guide book published even though good is by a man who has taken a couple of bad falls and the routes that he has been putting in the last 7-8 years are not of the super high Yam quailty.

Most belays these days especialy on the west end are bolted or if you walk 10ft you will find a set. Most west end routes will go with a light rack of .4-#2 sometimes a 3 and a set of nuts.

The west side is great for getting in lots of miles fairly easily and safely but dont forget about the east ether, for the most part that can be a completly diffrent ball of wax and just a suggestion, once you have a couple of miles and climbing a bit more the old routes on Kidd Goat are quite good for trad skills and pin craft but keep in mind that it hasnt been brought down a level like Yam has.

I finally did my first Yam lead yesterday - Easy Street. I brought along a rack which was heavy on smaller pro and found it great in supplementing the many bolts/pitons on the route.

The trickiest part for me was the routefinding. I guess the best way to learn is to continue to climb on a regular basis. Perhaps I'll try Kings Chimney next since it'll be hard to go offroute while inside.

If you end up running up Kings you will LOVE the traverse onto BBQ ledge. Should my alpine and aid climber's memory serve me correctly, a couple of the pins on the traverse to BBQ ledge are overdriven. A biner would be loaded over an edge if clipped directly, save a few shoulder length slings to tie off the pins through the eye. The topo tells you everything you need to know about the route finding. There are more than a few bolts that have sprung up in un-needed locations on that route, but that's another story.

Windy slabs, or Grey Goose would be a good next step after that. Or, if you want a route that fells a little more sporting (not to be confused with "sport climbing" like) Unnamed is a great route. Grillmair's is another great route for a new Yam climber too, it's longer so make sure you give yourself enough time.

Thanks for the info! I'm thinking of tackling "Joy" on Indefatigable in 2 weeks followed by either Windy Slab or Kings. I'll decide at the trailhead and climb Kings if nobody's on Grey Goose or Western Union. I've heard lots of great stuff about the final traverse. :)

I actually managed to second Unnamed and Grillmairs since posting my first message. Unnamed was very fun but I'm not sure if I would've been able to lead that second pitch (or 1st pitch in BVR). That 5.7 chimney was so smooth that it made me wonder if I was climbing on marble. Same thing goes for the last pitch on Grillmairs. It wasn't as polished but the view up from the belay station was enough to make my palms sweaty...

Speaking of which, if anyone is on bottleneck and find some gear (cams / draws / ???) above the chockstone/pinnacle belay station, there's free beer available if I get it back! My buddy broke his ankle on the route on Saturday (May 23), and some of the gear didn't get retrieved during the rescue (to be expected, of course.)

in addition to a standard rack, i would consider taking a few knifeblades and a spare set of calves on Joy.

Redshirt would be an excellent introduction to real route-finding on a longer Yam route to add to the end of that list.

On a related note:

i was wondering what all the commotion was about on friday and saturday. nice to find out nobody's been traumatized too badly.

Could I ask that you and your partners who were involved in the rescues post information about the causes of the accidents? it would be helpful to know the causes of recent accidents, as as far as i know parks is no longer publishing analysis (?).

in addition to a standard rack, i would consider taking a few knifeblades and a spare set of calves on Joy.

Ya, that first ledge big enough to sit on is damn near at the top isn't it.

I don't think the KB's are really needed on Joy at this point if you have a few tricams for those shallow cracks. There are a few pins in place on the route if you look for them, not to mention a fixed cam or two. That said, a rockies fist of iron is a standard portion of my rack for most routes.

Joy is a great route to find booty gear on BTW... if it gets claimed and you get beer, or if it doesn't get claimed and you get gear. You win either way,.